Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Lavatera L. cultivar Barnsley Baby.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Lavatera plant, botanically known as Lavatera L., and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Barnsley Baby.
The new Lavatera originated from a chance cross-pollination of two unidentified selections of Lavatera L., not patented. The new Lavatera was discovered by the Inventor in 1998 in Overslag, The Netherlands. Plants of the new Lavatera differed primarily from plants of the unidentified parental selections in plant size and flower color.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by cuttings in Overslag, The Netherlands since 1998, has shown that the unique features of this new Lavatera are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar Barnsley Baby have not been observed under all possible environmental and cultural conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature, light intensity, daylength, irrigation amount and frequency, and/or fertilizer rate without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Barnsley Babyxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Barnsley Babyxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. Upright, outwardly spreading and relatively short plant habit.
2. Freely flowering habit.
3. White-colored flowers with red purple-colored centers.
Plants of the new Lavatera can be compared to plants of the Lavatera cultivar Barnsley, not patented. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Overslag, The Netherlands, plants of the new Lavatera differed from of the cultivar Barnsley in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Lavatera were much shorter than plants of the cultivar Barnsley.
2. Plants of the new Lavatera had darker colored stems than plants of the cultivar Barnsley.